OR, MANXJAI, OF TI^B APIARY. 17S 



The principles of lapping- and suction are both involved in the 

 operation. 



When the stomach is full the bee repairs to the hive and 

 regurgitates its precious load, either giving it to the bees or 

 storing it in the cells. This honey remains for some time 

 uncapped that it may ripen, in which process the water is 

 partially evaporated, and the honey rendered thicker. If the 

 honey remains uncapped, or is removed from the cells, it will 

 generally granulate, if the temperature be reduced below 70 

 degrees. L,ike many other substances, most honey, if heated 

 and sealed while hot, will not crystallize till it is unsealed. In 

 case of granulation the sucrose and glucose crystallize in the 

 mellose. Some honey, as that from the South, and some from 

 California, seems to remain liquid indefinitely. Some kinds 

 of our own honey crystallize much more readily than others. 

 I have frequently observed that thick, ripe honey granulates 

 more slowly than thin honey. The only sure (?) test of the 

 purity of honey, if there be any, is that of the polariscope. 

 This, even if decisive, is not practical except in the hands of 

 the scientist. The most practical test is that of granulation, 

 though this is not wholly reliable. Granulated honey is almost 

 Certainly pure. Occasionally genuine honey, and of superior 

 excellence, refuses, even in a zero atmosphere, to crystallize. 



When there are no flowers, or when the flowers yield no 

 sweets, the bees, ever desirous to add to their stores, frequently 

 essay to rob other colonies, and often visit the refuse of cider- 

 mills, or suck up the oozing sweets of various plant or bark 

 lice, thus adding, may be, unwholesome food to their usually 

 delicious and refined stores. It is a curious fact that the queen 

 never lays her maximum number of eggs except when storing 

 is going on. In fact, in the interims of honey-gathering, egg- 

 laying not infrequently ceases altogether. The queen seems 

 discreet, gauging the size of her family by the probable means 

 of support. Or it is quite possible that the workers control 

 affairs by withholding the chyle, and thus the queen stops per- 

 force. Syrian bees are much more likely to continue brood- 

 rearing when no honey is being collected than are either Ger- 

 man or Italian bees. 



Again, in times of extraordinary yields of honey the stor- 



